<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Ty Lee's Guide to Mandatory Girlfriends' Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Nights by EnsignAdano</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166744">Ty Lee's Guide to Mandatory Girlfriends' Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Nights</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnsignAdano/pseuds/EnsignAdano'>EnsignAdano</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ATLA Winter Femslash Week 2021, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Graduate School, Light Angst, Light Swearing, Self-Indulgent, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, self-care</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:21:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,579</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166744</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnsignAdano/pseuds/EnsignAdano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"No more working for the rest of the night. I’m <em>making</em> you relax. Hashtag self-care, am I right?”</p><p>“Give me my laptop back, Ty Lee.” Mai reached for it, but Ty Lee held it just out of her reach. “I don’t—“</p><p>“You <em>do</em> need this, Mai,” Ty Lee said. “I’m worried about you. You’re going into Stressed-Out Grad Student Mode—you look so tired all the time and you’re barely talking to me or doing anything besides your work...Look, I know you want to finish this paper. But you’ve been working on it nonstop for <em>hours</em>. It can wait, Mai, I promise. It’s more important that you relax and take some time for yourself. So for the rest of tonight: no paper. No work at all. Can you do that? Please?” <em>Activate adorable puppy-dog eyes in 3, 2, 1…</em> “For me?”</p><p>Mai hesitated for a second, but finally relented. “Dammit, Ty Lee, you know I can’t resist those puppy-dog eyes.”</p><p>~~~</p><p>OR: To cheer up and heal her stressed-out girlfriend, Ty Lee embarks on a quest to provide her with the best night of self-care the world has ever seen.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ty Lee's Guide to Mandatory Girlfriends' Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Nights</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was meant to be just a short thing for Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021 (Day 2 -- Baking/Domesticity), but it kind of spiraled out of control. Like, 6,000 words out of control. (Then again, I love being able to say that and have 6k words in front of me instead of staring at a screen in perpetual writers' block, which is the other 99% of the time for me!)</p><p>The recipe for chocolate chip mug cakes that Mai and Ty Lee make, as well as other assorted notes, attributions, and references, are in the end notes!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Ty Lee recognized this pattern well. After having seen it so many times before, she knew exactly how to spot it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi, Mai!” she said brightly, entering the little study in their small apartment, where Mai was hard at work on her laptop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” Mai replied, distracted, without even looking up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee nodded at the laptop. “You working on a paper?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No thanks,” said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee frowned in concern. “All right,” she said, “do you need anything from me? Snack? Coffee? Shoulder massage?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Later,” said Mai in the same flat tone. She squinted harder at the computer and typed something so fast that the click-clack of her long fingernails on the keys sounded like a machine gun going off, and Ty Lee slowly backed away from her and out of the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t be prouder of her girlfriend and how hard she worked, every day, to get her master’s degree. She knew grad school was tough, really tough. But she also worried about Mai overexerting herself. This wasn’t the first time she’d done so; Ty Lee had seen it often enough to recognize the pattern. The first sign was always the disjointed, distracted responses—Mai always had a tendency towards aloofness and sarcasm, but usually her rejoinders usually related to the conversation at hand, at least. This was different. This was Mai not allowing herself to focus on anything besides her computer screen; this was tossed-off responses, strained eyes with bags under them, and a quick wit and sense of humor that had gone missing entirely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon, the next signs would begin showing themselves. Mai would be so focused on her work that she’d forget to eat, drink, use the bathroom; her aura, which was muted at the best of times, would fade unhealthily and flicker almost out of existence. And worst of all, she either wouldn’t even realize she was neglecting herself, or she wouldn’t care. “I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she’d keep saying, when she clearly was not. “There’s nothing wrong,” she’d brusquely insist, when there clearly was. It was the </span>
  <em>
    <span>not caring</span>
  </em>
  <span> that worried Ty Lee the most. At that point, trying to get Mai to do the simplest of self-care actions—taking a shower or eating more than a few bites of food—was like herding cats, and it came with no small amount of complaining and denial.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beyond that…well, Ty Lee didn’t know what happened beyond that. She’d sworn long ago that, as Mai’s girlfriend, she’d never, ever let her get to that point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And now that she saw the early signs, she knew it was time to nip them in the bud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Squaring her shoulders decisively, Ty Lee walked back into the study and stood next to Mai at her desk. She reached out and lightly tapped Mai on her shoulder, which finally—finally!—got Mai to glance up from her computer screen and at Ty Lee, looking slightly disoriented.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” Ty Lee smiled gently down at her. “How far along are you on your paper?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm? Oh, er…” Mai scrolled up and down through the Word document she had open, which must have been about a million pages long already. “I still need to polish up the middle section, and add references to the whole thing, and then of course I need to wait for feedback from my professor—“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But have you got a lot of it done?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose so,” said Mai, “yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you in a good place to stop for tonight?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai took a moment to consider this. “Yes, I guess I—“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great!” In one swift motion, Ty Lee slammed the lid of Mai’s laptop down. Mai jerked back and involuntarily cried out in protest; Ty Lee blithely ignored this. “No more working for the rest of the night. I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>making</span>
  </em>
  <span> you relax. Hashtag self-care, am I right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give me my laptop back, Ty Lee.” Mai reached for it, but Ty Lee held it just out of her reach. “I don’t—“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>need this, Mai,” Ty Lee said. “I’m worried about you. You’re going into Stressed-Out Grad Student Mode—you look so tired all the time and you’re barely talking to me or doing anything besides your work. Heck, Aang messaged me yesterday asking if you were all right, because he saw you in, like, Starbucks or something and he thought you looked really tired and depressed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He did not say that,” Mai said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can prove it. I have screenshots.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine, maybe he did say it.” Mai sighed. “Look, could you just give me back my laptop? I’ll finish this middle section and I’ll be all yours. Promise. But I need to do this now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee opened the laptop herself and held it out in front of Mai. “Read the last sentence you wrote out loud.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai squinted at the screen. “‘This analysis serves to exemplify the qualities depicted in the analysis of…’” She stopped, then closed her eyes and sighed, looking almost physically pained. “I used the word ‘analysis’ twice in the same sentence. No—“ she opened her eyes and checked again—“three times.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In a sentence that’s half a page long,” added Ty Lee. “And which—as nicely as possible—makes no frickin’ sense.” She’d caught a glimpse of Mai’s work earlier, and to her it served as the final proof that Mai desperately needed a break.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She softened and put her hand gently on Mai’s shoulder, looking deep into her amber eyes. “Look, I know you want to finish this paper. But you’ve been working on it nonstop for <em>hours</em>. It can wait, Mai, I promise. It’s more important that you relax and take some time for yourself. So for the rest of tonight: no paper. No work at all. Can you do that? Please?” <em>Activate adorable puppy-dog eyes in 3, 2, 1…</em> “For me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai hesitated for a second, but finally relented. “Dammit, Ty Lee, you know I can’t resist those puppy-dog eyes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do know,” Ty Lee said, grinning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Internally, she was practically doing flips—and if it had been possible in the tiny, cramped study, she probably <em>would</em> be doing flips—at the fact that she’d finally gotten Mai to take that much-needed break. She’d been worrying about Mai for days now. Although she was sure Mai would never admit it, Ty Lee knew her inside and out; she could read the subtlest of her smirks like an open book. And over the years, she’d learned that the thing about Mai throwing herself into her work like this was that, nine times out of ten, it wasn’t really the work she was concerned about. It wasn’t really that particular paper or that specific seminar. There was something else, some emotional thing she was trying to bury under a mountain of coursework so she wouldn’t have to feel anything about it. The singleminded focus was what Ty Lee’s psychology professor from sophomore year would have called a “defense mechanism”—a way for Mai to not have to feel, not have to care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d get to that in time, though. Right now, tearing Mai away from her work was in itself enough. And Ty Lee had a mountain of activities all planned out for that night in order to get her girlfriend back to emotionally-healthy levels—if not to cheer her up entirely. </span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“Okay, the first order of business for Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night will be for you to take a shower and for both of us to put on the coziest PJs we can find,” Ty Lee declared. She’d already put Mai’s laptop on the tallest shelf of the closet in their room and was now standing in front of their closed closet door decisively, hands on her hips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The first order of business for Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night should be to find a better name for it,” Mai deadpanned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Ty Lee said, then brightened. “Maybe we can call it by its acronym!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“M, G, Hashtag-S-C, C, N?” Mai said. “What does <em>that</em> spell?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It spells the noise you make when you’re not listening to me!” Ty Lee said, with a touch of triumph. Ha! Mai wasn’t the <em>only</em> one who could be witty and sarcastic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Hashtag’ isn’t a noise,” replied Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and pointed to the bathroom. “Just go shower. How long has it been since you showered? Four days?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It hasn’t been that—“ Mai began counting on her fingers. “It’s been three days.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Four.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, three. I took one on Wednesday while you were at a rehearsal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever it is, that’s still entirely too many shower-less days. Now get yourself to the bathroom. That’s the first step of Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag Self-Case Chill Night. I’ll find you some nice, soft PJs while you’re in there,” Ty Lee added, smiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t own any pajamas," said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I look like I’m gonna let that stop me?” Ty Lee pointed to herself with mock bravado. “I’m very resourceful, you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai half-grunted in response, and Ty Lee couldn’t help but feel a pang in her stomach. If <em>that</em> wasn’t enough to get some wry, sarcastic remark out of Mai, Ty Lee didn’t know what was. Clearly Mai needed this self-care night even more than Ty Lee had thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pointed again, more insistently, to the bathroom door. “Now go.”</span>
</p><p>Mai sighed, but made her way to the bathroom anyway. That was a step in the right direction, but to Ty Lee it still looked like Mai had half her mind focused on her paper—her eyebrows were knitted, her forehead wrinkled, her eyes squinty and darting around all over the place. If Ty Lee entered the bathroom later to see Mai writing ideas in outline format on the condensation of the shower door—which had happened before—she swore she'd flip a table. (Out of love and concern, of course.)</p><p>
  <span>But for now, she focused on getting changed into pajamas, as the prelude to their Mandatory Girlfriends' Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night. She chose her favorite pair of pajamas, soft pink ones with lacy sleeves and an adorable floral print. Since they were her favorite, she ostensibly tried to save them for special occasions; the trouble was, she had very lenient standards as to what constituted a special occasion. “I’m watching the newest Pixar movie on my laptop while eating Pocky” counted as special. “I made it through a really long and boring dance rehearsal today” counted as special. And, of course, “I’m spending a special Mandatory Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night with my girlfriend” counted as special—if not the most special of all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After putting them on, she walked over to Mai’s closet to see what kinds of pajama options were there. Mai had been clothed in the same black, long-sleeved T-shirt and pants for…well, several days now, but Ty Lee wasn’t sure exactly how long. All of Mai’s clothes looked pretty much identical to her, and when she opened the closet, that opinion was confirmed. Black shirts, black jeans, black turtlenecks and blazers and the occasional black pencil skirt. The closet was a sea of black, with some splashes of crimson and a few items in very, very dark gray. None of the options were very comfortable or pajama-y, either; they all looked at least semi-professional, the kinds of clothes you’d wear, if not at a job interview or a thesis defense, then at least at a meeting with a very sophisticated professor-type person you wanted to impress. Not ideal for Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee shook her head, closed the closet, and went back over to her own wardrobe. She dug through it for clothes she could give to Mai to wear, but all of them were either too small, too bright and pastel-y and flowery, or both. (Although the thought of Mai wearing her pale-blue pajama bottoms covered with cartoon kittens, or her top with a cartoon Starbucks cup on it and the words WHOLE LATTE LOVE, did make Ty Lee giggle.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, she settled on an old, dark green WashU sweatshirt in the back of her closet. It was big and baggy enough to fit Mai and dark enough to please her, and as a bonus, Ty Lee had worn it a few times before without having washed it, so it had that lingering girlfriend smell. Even if Mai didn’t say it, Ty Lee knew she would appreciate that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pulled out the WashU sweatshirt and some sweatpants and made her way over to the bathroom, smiling when she heard the sound of the shower running. Sometimes she’d force Mai to take a shower and Mai would enter the bathroom and then just sit there, either so brain-fogged that she forgot what she came in for or purposefully not listening to Ty Lee out of stubbornness and denial. So the fact that the shower was on at all was a good sign. Ty Lee opened the door to the bathroom and was further pleased to see that Mai was actually <em>in</em> the shower. Once or twice, she’d run the shower without going under it, but she’d stopped after the day that a group hangout with their friend Katara turned into a full twenty-minute rant on how water waste was destroying the environment and, like, 50% of the world’s happiness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee deposited the folded-up sweatshirt and sweatpants on the hamper near the shower door, then sat down on the closed toilet seat and began to unbraid her hair, which had become tangled and messy. No one could braid hair better than Mai, in her opinion. Mai was precise, methodical, perfect; she always brushed Ty Lee’s hair until it shone, gently pulled apart any knots, and never left one hair out of place. But Ty Lee was okay with doing her own hair, too. She brushed it out and pulled it into a new, loose plait down her back, and the repetitive motion of the braiding combined with the steam filling the bathroom and the white noise of the shower filled her whole body with relaxation. She felt cozier and more peaceful than she had in a long time; she could practically <em>feel</em> her aura becoming pinker. She just hoped it was having the same effect on Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As if in response to her thoughts, at that moment Mai turned off the water and exited the shower. As she wrapped a towel around herself, Ty Lee noticed that she already looked a lot better—fresher, less tense. Clearly the shower had had the desired cleansing effect on her. Of course, Ty Lee couldn’t deny the other reaction she had to seeing her girlfriend stepping out of the shower. It felt like her heart was going “!”, like the speech bubble of a character in an old comic book. Maybe it was even going “!!!” or “!!!!!”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, stop it,” Mai said when she noticed Ty Lee staring. “You’ve seen me like this hundreds of times.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t make it any less beautiful,” said Ty Lee.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A moment of silence followed, and then—“You’re blushing!” Ty Lee exclaimed, pointing at Mai gleefully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai blushed even more furiously in response. “I am not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are!” Ty Lee singsonged. “You so <em>totally</em> are!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not listening to you,” said Mai as she plugged in the hairdryer and pointedly turned it on to its highest setting. Its loud whirring subsequently drowned out Ty Lee’s laughter and cries of “You are, you are, you are!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai’s hair was long and thick, so it always took forever to dry. After going through it several times with the hairdryer, Mai combed it and left it down and loose. It looked a lot better than the messy, greasy ponytail/space bun hybrid she’d been sporting for the past several days—and it had the added side benefit of, in Ty Lee’s view, instantly making her look a thousand times hotter. Not that her girlfriend wasn’t hot all the time. But seeing her there, with her shiny, sleek, freshly washed hair hanging down to her waist…well, Ty Lee certainly wasn't going to complain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Besides that, though, it was just nice to see her girlfriend taking care of herself. Of course, it would be even better once Mai’s eyes looked more alert and didn’t have dark circles under them, and once her shoulders weren’t hitched up to her ears. But one thing at a time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking of which…Ty Lee waited until Mai was fully dried off and dressed, then spoke. “Okay, it’s time to start Phase 2 of our Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many phases <em>are</em> there?” asked Mai as she tugged the bottom of her sweatshirt down past her waist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll find out soon enough!” Ty Lee said brightly. “Anyway, for Phase 2, you can choose between two options. Heck yeah! Let’s go!” She pumped her fist in the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are the only twenty-two-year-old I know who unironically uses the words ‘heck yeah,’” said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I stand by that,” replied Ty Lee. “Okay, Option 1 is: we bake a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies. And the pros to that option are that we’ll have a whole batch of cookies. But the cons are that it takes, like, an hour to prep and cook and bake, and we want happiness and self-care now, not in an hour.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re saying we want instant gratification, in other words,” Mai said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! Sure! That!” said Ty Lee. “But worry not, because I have a solution. Option 2 is…” She took a comb and a brush and used them as drumsticks, making a dramatic drumroll sound on the side of the sink. “A chocolate chip cookie <em>in a mug!</em>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A mug?” Mai frowned. “Like a coffee mug?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah! You mix all the ingredients in the mug and then microwave it for, like, a minute, and boom! Instant chocolatey delight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t sound like real baking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee put her hands on her hips. “Do you want instant chocolatey delight or not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai sighed melodramatically. "Fine. Yes, I want instant chocolatey delight. Let's do this."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With Mai trailing behind her, Ty Lee practically skipped to the kitchen. She’d found this recipe on the Internet a while ago and had had it bookmarked ever since. She’d been <em>dying</em> to try it out, and she couldn’t think of a better person to do it with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the kitchen, both of them first chose mugs in which to make their mug-chocolate-chip-cake-cookie things (okay, Ty Lee’s naming skills <em>definitely</em> needed some work). Ty Lee picked a pink mug with little white &amp; red hearts all over it, and Mai chose a beige one with the small printed words, <em>Actually, I can</em>. Then Ty Lee pulled up the recipe on her phone and read out the ingredients for Mai to retrieve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why am <em>I</em> the one who has to get all this?” asked Mai, even as she reached into the fridge for some butter and a carton of eggs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because you’ve done nothing but stare at a screen for the past three days!” said Ty Lee. “You need to do, like, an actual thing! With your hands! That’s part of Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night. And if it makes you feel any better, both of us will be doing the actual mixing in our own mugs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Making the recipe itself wasn’t hard—as Ty Lee had said, all they needed to do was mix butter, flour, sugar, egg yolk, and some other ingredients in a single mug. They had all the necessary ingredients, and they didn’t run into any major pitfalls—it was hard to go wrong with such a simple recipe. For a few minutes, the two of them worked together in companionable silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I like how you’ve added a nice, reasonable amount of chocolate chips…and then there’s me,” Ty Lee said, pointing to her mug, which was practically overflowing with the chips. She plucked a fallen one off the counter and ate it. “Measuring the right amount with my <em>heart</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your heart is a perfidious temptress and you must never listen to it,” said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it can’t be that bad.” Ty Lee smiled sweetly. “It led me to you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai blushed. Again. “Ty Lee, you’re gonna have to stop saying such sweet, adorable things all the time or I might just have to stab someone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m counting that as a success,” said Ty Lee, giggling, all the while making a mental note to look up the word <em>perfidious.</em></span>
</p><p>
  <span>After the ingredients were sufficiently mixed, both of them stuck their mugs into the microwave, and Ty Lee set the timer for 60 seconds. As the two of them waited and the microwave hummed, Ty Lee glanced over at her girlfriend. Mai already looked worlds better than she had just an hour ago. The simple, tactile act of baking had obviously soothed her; her eyebrows were no longer knitted and her shoulders were much lower. She also looked vaguely annoyed, but that was normal for her; in fact, Ty Lee took it as a good sign. It meant she was present and grounded enough to be annoyed in the first place, not distant and distracted and obsessed with her work. And Ty Lee knew she’d look even better once she got a taste of these delicious chocolate chip mug cakes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As if on cue, the microwave beeped, and Ty Lee sprang up and opened the door with a flourish. The two mugs sat inside, filled with soft, newly-baked cookie dough and steaming from the top. Practically vibrating with excitement, Ty Lee distributed the mugs and two spoons from the silverware drawer, then clinked her mug against Mai’s. “Cheers!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai looked surprised at the gesture, but then shrugged and clinked back. “Cheers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee took a spoonful from the mug, popped it into her mouth, and…oh god, it was <em>amazing</em>. It was magical. She wanted to eat nothing but this for the whole rest of her life. This chocolate chip mug cake was the food of the gods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Across from her, Mai‘s eyes were wide as she ate her own spoonful. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Ty Lee exclaimed, grinning; in her shock, Mai could only nod.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now,” said Ty Lee with a teasing smile, “are you ready to apologize for doubting me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai looked confused. “When did I doubt you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When I told you about this mug cake recipe! You said it sounded stupid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said it didn’t sound like real baking,” said Mai. “I never said it sounded <em>stupid</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Apologize anyway,” said Ty Lee, putting down her mug and crossing her arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” Mai said, sighing. “Ty Lee, I deeply and sincerely apologize for doubting your mug cake-making abilities. You clearly have superior taste in not-really-baked goods.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her tone betrayed the sarcasm behind her words, but Ty Lee smiled triumphantly nevertheless. “Apology accepted.” Then her face softened, and she reached out and touched Mai’s shoulder gently. “But seriously, though. You feeling better?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Mai closed her eyes. “I mean, I think so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good!” said Ty Lee. “Because this is only the beginning. Now we’re getting into Phase 3 of our Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night, which is—hang on, stay right there—“ She dashed out of the kitchen to one of the closets in their apartment, yanked the door open, and pulled out a soft, fluffy gray blanket. She ran back to the kitchen, brandishing it in front of Mai, who was savoring another bite of the mug cake. “Wrapping ourselves in blankets! Eating our chocolatey delight while being curled up and cozy on the couch! C’mon, even you can’t say no to that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You underestimate my ability to say no to things,” said Mai, her tone flat. But Ty Lee didn’t miss her eyeing the blanket covetously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee giggled. “Come on, stop being cynical for five seconds and come with me.” She picked up her mug cake, still holding the blanket in one arm, and led Mai to their living room, where she laid the blanket out on the couch. She directed Mai to sit on it, then sat next to her and wrapped the blanket around the two of them as tightly as she could, all the while murmuring things like “burrito blanket” and “happy lil’ sushi roll.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you think the things <em>I</em> write in my papers are nonsense,” said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s, like, <em>academic</em> nonsense,” said Ty Lee. “This is just plain nonsense.” She finished pulling the blanket around them and put a comforting hand on Mai’s leg underneath it. “There. How’s that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It feels…nice, honestly,” said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Awesome!” Ty Lee exclaimed. “Glad to hear it, because now we begin Phase 4 of our Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night…” She grabbed her laptop, which was on the coffee table in front of them, then flipped it open and began typing into the address bar on Chrome. “Which Alice Wu-directed romcom movie about Chinese-American lesbians are you in the mood for tonight? <em>Saving Face</em> or <em>The Half of It</em>?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s such an oddly specific genre,” Mai said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And the fact that there are <em>two</em> movies that fit it fills my heart with joy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, I guess so,” said Mai. “I’ve never heard of either of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve never heard of <em>The Half of It</em>?” Ty Lee said a bit incredulously. “Wasn’t, like, everyone on Twitter talking about it when it came out last year?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When you say <em>everyone</em>,” said Mai, “do you actually mean something like ‘more than one or two of the people I follow?’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee pouted. “Maybe, I guess…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In retrospect, she supposed she shouldn’t have been so surprised that Mai didn’t know either of the movies. As preoccupied with her work and out-of-touch with pop culture as she was, she tended to always be really late to whatever new, hot thing was on Netflix. Ty Lee had nearly spit out her mocha latte the day, about a year ago, that Mai had walked in and asked offhandedly, “Hey, Ty Lee, what’s <em>Stranger Things</em>?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, Ty Lee smiled as she continued to tap away at her laptop keyboard. “That’s all right,” she said. “It means you get to experience whatever movie we pick for the first time! And…it looks like <em>Saving Face</em> isn’t on Netflix and I don’t feel like piracy today, so…<em>The Half of It</em> it is!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She cued up the movie, set the laptop down on the table, and picked up her mug cake again. While no longer steaming, it was still quite warm. Mai was already nearly halfway finished with hers. As the movie began to play, Ty Lee situated herself securely under the blanket and snuggled up next to Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what’s Phase 5?” Mai asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” said Ty Lee.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Phase 5. Of Mandatory…Girlfriends’…er, Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night.” Mai’s brow furrowed as she tried to remember all the words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee smiled. “Phase 5 is this,” she said, snaking her arm behind Mai’s back. “Watching and eating and snuggling and enjoying. And giving that big brain of yours a rest for once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai closed her eyes. “I think I like Phase 5 the best,” she said, smiling just a little.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With her hair freshly washed, her body cocooned in Ty Lee’s soft sweatshirt, and her mug cake in hand, Mai looked a million times better than the exhausted, stressed grad student Ty Lee had seen earlier that day. The night around them was dark, and their pajamas &amp; blankets were so soft, and as the movie played quietly in the background, they sat together on the warm, cozy couch in comfortable silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a long time before Mai broke the silence. “I got a crap grade on my last paper,” she confessed, in a voice so soft it was hard to hear her at first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” said Ty Lee, almost as softly. True emotional vulnerability from Mai was a rare thing, and Ty Lee was afraid to ask too much at one time for fear of shattering it. For fear of making Mai uncomfortable and breaking the trust she’d placed in her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” said Mai. “I’d thought it was fine, but I got it back the other day and apparently it wasn’t. At least, not according to my professor. He called it ‘derivative’ and ‘uninspired.’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee winced in sympathy. “That’s awful, Mai. I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai sighed, still not meeting Ty Lee’s eyes. “Which I guess is why I’ve been working my ass off on this new paper. Because—“ she smiled a wry, ironic smile that didn’t reach her eyes— “the last thing I want to be is derivative and uninspired.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Ty Lee said with attempted cheerfulness, “one bad grade on one paper isn’t the end of the world, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s not…” Mai trailed off. “But it makes me wonder whether I’m really cut out for grad school. I mean, not that I don’t think I can <em>do</em> it, I don’t doubt my abilities or anything…“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good, because you shouldn’t,” said Ty Lee with an encouraging smile. “You’re the smartest, cleverest girl I know and—“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You had a pep talk all cued up already, didn’t you?” said Mai.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As you deserve!” Ty Lee exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai smiled a little at that, but the grin dropped off her face as quickly as it had come. “It’s just that everyone else in my program is so <em>passionate</em>. They all know exactly what they’re gonna do; they’re totally convinced they’re gonna save the world. And normally I’d be like, ‘ugh, passion, gross, why can’t you just repress your emotions like a <em>cool</em> person…’” Mai rolled her eyes sarcastically, and Ty Lee laughed just a little; that was pretty much verbatim how Mai had complained about her fellow students several times before. Well, not verbatim, but it may as well have been. “But…sometimes I feel like it must be nice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai’s eyes were downcast, her eyebrows drawn. Her mug cake, long abandoned, sat on the table as she held her hands tightly together. Ty Lee tentatively reached out and put a gentle hand to her leg, and was relieved to see that Mai didn’t reject it, didn’t immediately close herself off. She just continued to stare at the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just went to grad school because it seemed like the logical thing to do after college. I still have no idea what I’m actually gonna do with my life. I’m not like <em>you</em>, Ty Lee. I mean, look at you. You’ve known you wanted to dance practically since you could walk, you’ve known it for all the time I’ve known you, and now you’ve got a degree in it and you’re performing for a living. And it’s not just dance; you’re passionate about <em>everything</em>. Even something as simple as a hashtag-self-care night.” She fingered the edge of the gray blanket, rubbing it between the pads of her thumb and forefinger compulsively.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t have that kind of passion. About my masters’ and my grad school work, or about <em>anything</em>. I don’t know what I really care about. And I thought maybe, by working my ass off, I could…<em>manufacture</em> that passion, I guess, so that after I got my masters’ I could get a job I didn’t actively hate and live a decent life. But…” Mai sighed, and her entire body seemed to deflate with defeat. “I guess not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seeing Mai like this, so drained and exhausted, broke Ty Lee’s heart. She’d known there was something Mai was hiding, some emotions she was burying under singleminded focus on her coursework—but now that she knew it, all she wanted was take away what was hurting her. She wanted with every fiber of her being to make Mai feel better, lift her depression, if only a little bit. But for now, all she could do was hug her, embrace her, feel her soft breath and see her eyelids softly resting against her cheeks. Mai didn’t look annoyed or stoic anymore, and it struck Ty Lee how much effort it must take to keep that melancholy mask on every day. Now, she just looked drained. Depressed. Broken. And so Ty Lee hugged her tight, doing whatever she could to take some of that sadness away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sat in silence like that for a long time, neither of them quite knowing what to say next. Finally, Ty Lee decided to begin with an axiom of truth. “You know I’ll always love you, right? No matter how you do in any class or what you get a degree in or a job in or whatever. None of that’s ever gonna change the fact that I love you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She felt Mai relaxing a little in her arms. “I know, Ty Lee. Thank you. I love you too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And,” Ty Lee added, “none of it’s gonna change the fact that you’re an amazing person. You’re ambitious and clever and so, so brilliant. I mean, come on, Mai—grad school is <em>hard</em>. The fact that you’re in it in the first place, and working so hard at getting your master’s and succeeding in it, is amazing in itself. It’s something to be proud of. I’m proud of you for it—“ she smiled— “and I give you permission, instead of beating yourself up all the time, to be proud of yourself, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai smiled up at Ty Lee and squeezed her hand gratefully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And listen,” continued Ty Lee, “maybe you’re not passionate about what you’re getting a degree in. Maybe you don’t know where you’re gonna go next. But guess what? <em>Lots</em> of people don’t. You’re not alone. And even for the people who do know, they don’t always end up exactly where they’ve planned, either, because life throws us curveballs. It’s unpredictable. And <em>that’s okay.</em>” She looked deep into Mai’s beautiful brown eyes, which—was it her imagination, or were they shining just a little? “You just have to stop being so self-critical and trust that everything will be all right in the end. And wherever you end up, I promise I’ll be with you, and I’ll love you, and I’ll help you practice self-care when you need it—every step of the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai smiled and blinked away a few tears, whose existence Ty Lee knew she’d vehemently deny if asked about them later. “Thank you, Ty Lee,” she said. “I needed that.” Her voice was soft, almost inaudible against the low murmur of the movie. But Ty Lee heard her, and she couldn’t help but smile at the words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I guess I needed all of this, too,” she added, gesturing at large to the blanket and the movie and their mug cakes. “This Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Night stuff. Thank you for spotting that when I couldn’t.” She closed her eyes and smiled more broadly and deeply than Ty Lee had seen her smile in days, maybe weeks. “I love you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And even if Ty Lee heard those words a thousand times—and maybe she had—it would never stop feeling like the very first time. Like butterflies in her stomach and fireworks in her heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe this was the secret sixth phase of Mandatory Girlfriends’ Hashtag-Self-Care Chill Nights. The phase that neither of them had known about or tried to induce until it happened. The phase that dealt with not just physical, but emotional well-being—which, Ty Lee supposed, made it the most important phase of all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh,” said Mai, rubbing her eyes. “Stupid emotional vulnerability. Why can’t I just repress all my feelings like a <em>cool</em> person?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then Ty Lee was laughing, and then Mai was laughing, and whatever tension there may have been in the room was broken. It was just the two of them together in the dark, laughing and laughing at everything and nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, before Ty Lee knew it, Mai’s lips were on hers, and she felt just the same excited, breathless fluttering as if it were the first time. Warmth spread through her whole body and being, her whole aura, down to the tips of her fingers that were still on the small of Mai’s back, embracing her. Mai’s heart was beating in tandem with her own, her chest rising and falling with each breath, her eyelashes brushing softly against her cheeks; and Ty Lee felt all of it, as if their bodies had bonded, become one. It was the release of something that both of them had wanted—no, <em>needed</em>—for far too long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After what simultaneously seemed like forever and no time at all, Mai broke away and let out a deep, contented sigh, almost too low for Ty Lee to hear. “And I <em>really</em> needed <em>that</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee let out a small giggle, and after that, neither of them said anything at all, just sat there on the couch as the movie continued to drone softly in the background, embracing, breathing each other in, feeling the other’s warmth. They held hands, and with her thumb Mai rubbed little circles into Ty Lee’s skin; the small, subconscious gesture filled Ty Lee with pleasure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mai was watching the movie through half-lidded eyes, and her head rested on Ty Lee’s chest. As Ty Lee stroked her long black hair, it struck her how <em>vulnerable</em> Mai looked, how different from her usual stoic, stony personality. She looked relaxed, peaceful, the way she only was in moments like this—when the two of them were together—and even then quite rarely. She looked so much better than she had earlier this week, even earlier in the night, because she’d not only physically cared for herself, but mentally, too. Her face was open, her expression serene, and Ty Lee wanted to live in this gentle peace forever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the end of the movie, Mai’s eyes had closed entirely. Her breathing had become steady and even, and the movement of her thumb on Ty Lee’s hand gradually slowed, then stilled. Careful not to wake her, Ty Lee reached over and shut her laptop, then got up from the couch and lifted Mai up in her arms. Mai didn’t even stir. Her sleep was clearly much-needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ty Lee, her arm muscles strong and developed from years of dance and gymnastics, could carry Mai easily. With the lightest footsteps she could muster, she made her way over to their bedroom, Mai in her arms. She carefully deposited Mai onto the bed, then shook out and stretched her arm muscles as she walked to the other side of the bed and climbed into it. Mai continued to sleep like a rock, her face, at last, free of worry—and Ty Lee, too, found that she was no longer worrying about her girlfriend’s health and happiness; she guessed the self-care night had rejuvenated her too. As she pulled the covers around the two of them and lay down, Mai murmured something and snuggled closer to Ty Lee in her sleep, a hint of a peaceful smile on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tomorrow they would wake up and face the day—and all the trials, tribulations, and existential crises that came with it—with newfound strength, all the while at each other’s sides. Maybe Mai would finish her paper. Maybe she’d decide whether or not she wanted to keep writing papers in the first place. But for now…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For now, thought Ty Lee as she drifted off to sleep with her girlfriend in her arms, it was enough just to know that they were going to be okay.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! As promised, various notes, attributions, and references -- because I'm terrified of being accused of plagiarism for one (1) line that slightly resembles another, so hopefully this section will help assuage my paranoia.</p><p>First and foremost, <a href="https://mugfull.tumblr.com/post/164491211097/post-and-out-sassycelery-kirschtein-s">here</a> is Mai and Ty Lee’s magical chocolate chip cookie mug cake recipe. I’ve never actually made it myself, but it sounds delicious, so if you follow this recipe, please let me know how it is!</p><p>The opening dialogue was influenced by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/638496-whenever-percy-stopped-by-to-see-annabeth-she-was-so">a conversation between Percy and Annabeth</a> in <em>The Mark of Athena</em> by Rick Riordan, which I guess has stuck with me all these years. Similarly, the phrasing of the line “water waste was destroying the environment and, like, 50% of the world’s happiness” is slightly cribbed from <a href="https://waitbutwhy.com/2016/05/mailbag-1.html">this post</a> on the blog <em>Wait But Why</em>. And measuring chocolate chips in a recipe "with your heart" is from <a href="https://twitter.com/mo__mac/status/1050209478937890816?lang=en">this tweet</a> by Mollie McClanahan, which I never fail to think of every time I eat chocolate chips.</p><p>Finally, Ty Lee's mug is one of <a href="https://www.target.com/p/15oz-2pk-stoneware-hearts-mugs-red-pink-opalhouse-8482/-/A-80221807">these</a>, and Mai's is <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Stoneware-Mug-Actually-I-Can/dp/B07WTQFF7W"> this one</a> (the latter is inspired by one my mom owns).</p><p>Thank you again for reading! My tumblr is bohemian-rhapsody-in-blue, in case any of y'all ever want to talk. And I promise this won't be my last work for the ATLA fandom!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>